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SKETCHES 



OF 



IN 



INDIANA. 



''QUORUM P^APS-\f\UI}'^: 



SIT 



REV. AARON WOOD, D.D. 



INDIANAPOLIS: 

J. M. OLCOTT, Publisher, 
1883- 



^ 3 OO^ 






INTRODUCTION. 



It affords me great pleasure to contribute a few words by way of introduction 
to Dr, Wood's Sketches of. Things and Peoples. This kind of book, the subject 
matter of which is woven largely out of the personal experiences of the 
writer, is, in the nature of the case, full of interest. It lives. Dr. Wood 
says truthfully on his title page, that of these things he has been a part. 
It was only modesty that required the omission of magna from the Virgilian 
quotation. 

Dr. Aaron Wood is one of the pioneers of Indiana. He has personally 
witnessed the entire transformation by which this great Commonwealth, with 
its telephone, its electric light, and its sixty millions of wheat, has been in 
three score years evolved from a dark wilderness, whose Grendel was fever 
and ague. He has virtually seen our whole history enacted year by year, 
and has had a personal interest or actual part in every important event since 
our admission into the Union. To this extraordinary breadth of observation 
among the growing populations and institutions of our State, must be added 
the Doctor's natural genius for seeing things, without which travel is folly, 
years barren, and eyes useless. He who sees and sees and sees nothing, 
would better never write. 

When in the autumn of 1635 a colony of Massachusetts people made 
their toilsome way westward to lay the foundations of the future in the valley 
of the Connecticut, it is said that the voice of the resolute Hooker made the 
woods of every camping station ring with his psalmody and preaching. 
Aaron Wood has been the Hooker of the Indiana forests — the voice of one 
crying in the wilderness. 

To be sure, ttiis brief monograph is a genuine product. It has the im- 
\ress of its authorship on every page. That strong and unique personality 
fich has made Dr. Wood one and indivisible is stamped, as it should be, on 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

all his work. This quality, instead of detracting from the value of these 
Sketches, will add to their interest and acceptability. 

As to the general merit and worth of this historical essay by our veterar» 
friend, it is sufficient to say that such brochures form the "real presence" 
in the history that is to be. Happy is that State whose founders and apostles, 
recite their own story for the ear of posterity. 

I trust that this contribution of Dr. Wood's to the growing historical 
literature of Indiana will receive — as it deserves — a hearty welcome, not only 
from the many who have been honored by personal acquaintance with the 
author, but also by that other many who have known him "not. May he live 
long to enjoy in common with the other fathers of our people the grateful 
fruitions of a well-spent life. May many years of useful achievement stilli 
intervene between us and that day when we shall have to say — 

O, good, gray head, that all men knew ! 
O, fallen at length our tower of strength ; 
That stood four-square to all the winds that blew. 

John Clark Ridpath. 
Indiana Asbury University, 
October, 1882. 



PREFACE. 

TO THE READER : 

I was brought up in the western part of Ohio, in a family- 
keeping entertainment, for travellers and movers and was accus- 
tomed to read the newspapers of Cincinnati, Chillicothe and 
Urbanna during the years from i8i2 to 1823. In this manner 
I became acquainted with many emigrants who were on their way 
to Indiana, and also with many Indiana men when they were 
traveling eastward. This will account for my personal knowledge 
of "Things and Peoples" in Indiana previous to the time of my 
coming to the State. 

In September of 1823 — when in my 21st year — I came to 
Indiana as an Itinerant Preacher, since which time I have traveled 
over the entire State. 

At the solicitation of many friends I offer to the public these 
sketches. 

And, in defiance of a profound maxim of C. C. Cokes, 
author of "Lacon," which says, 

"He who cannot throw fire into his book, 
"Ought to throw his book into the fire," 

I adopt the couplet of his relative, the Rev. Walter Colter : 

"Go, little book, I will not hum thee, 
"And tell thy tale, whoe'er may spurn thee." 

Aaron Wood. 
Lafayette, hid., October \i^, 1882. (My 80th birthday.) 



SKETCHES 

OIF 

THINGS AND PEOPLES, 



CHAPTER I. 



NATURAL ADVANTAGES. 



The State of Indiana covers an area of 34,000 square miles, 
over which there is a distribution, by aqueous influences, of lime, 
sand, clay, coal and iron, not only of sufficient abundance to 
fertilize the soil, but furnishing abundant material for employ- 
ing those engaged in the useful arts. Were it not for the 
rivers which pass through this State it would be one vast level, 
varying from 500 to 1,000 feet above the sea. The streams 
have worn for themselves channels and sunk below the general 
plane ; yet, we have no mountain and scarcely anything which 
may be called a hill. The headlands which appear along 
the banks of our rivers are not above the plane, which extends 
far as the eye can behold. 

The State is bounded on the north by Michigan 41°, 4.6'' 
north latitude ; extends south on the Ohio river to 37°, 
50' ; commences on the west line of Ohio at 7°, 47' west 
from Washington City, and reaches west to Illinois, being 
about 276 miles long, and 145 wide, making 23 millions of 
acres. 

Situated in the middle of the great valley which gradually 
rises from the Ohio river until it reaches its summit near the 



8 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

great lakes of the north, it furnishes civiHzed man those three 
great means of comfort : food, raiment, and shelter. 

The geology of Indiana opens a wide field not only for 
the student, but the practical mechanic and industrious agricul- 
turist, who, like Hugh Miller, amid the rocks of Cromorty, 
"toiled that he might eat, and ate that he might be able to 
toil." 

Although we may not find near the surface any of the 
primitive formations containing the precious metals, nor be able 
to penetrate so deep into the bowels of the earth, as in coun- 
tries subject to volcanic action ; yet the deposition if not the 
crystalization of all the formations composing the surface of 
this country, require to be well and carefully studied. The 
mountain limestone, red sandstone, fire-clay and fields of coal 
and iron, should not only be known to the student of nature, 
but be overcome by the hand of the patient artisan. The 
uniform marks of some power which has since ceased to de- 
posit where once it carried on its waves "primeval forests and 
'rocks of a pre-Adamite age," cry out to us: "Up! get you 
away to the fields that you may find the ripple-marks of that 
old ocean, or grooved passage of the moving bowlder, carried 
by the glacier." 

From personal observation I am able to inform the reader 
that there is in the State of Indiana a better distribution of 
soil, rock, water and timber than in any other of our western 
States. Not only is timber more abundant, but the greatest 
variety of forest trees may be found in Indiana. Through 
this State passes the boundary line between the Appalachian and 
Campestrain provinces of North American forests, as described 
by Dr. Cooper in the patent office reports of i860; the most 
of the State being in what is called the Ohio Division, or western 
portion of the Appalachian province. I have myself seen 52 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 9 

varieties of native growth that attained the size of a tree. 
And it is a fact that those trees planted from the north or 
south, not indigenous, soon become acchmated and do well 
in our soil. The evergreens of the Alleghany or Canadian 
regions are our choice ornamental trees. 

However objectionable our climate, by extreme heat in 
summer, and extreme cold in winter, yet for all the purposes 
of horticulture and agriculture, producing fruit, grain and grass, 
it is comparatively the very best, by its abundant, seasonable 
moisture, occasioned by the rain-bearing winds from the gulf 
of Mexico, which seem to be turned east near us when they 
have met the cold condensing currents from the Cascade moun- 
tains. And the coincidence between the western limits of dis- 
tribution of these rains and the boundary of continued forests, 
may be one cause of the prevalence of woodless prairies on 
our west. Be that as it may, one thing is true : for the 
past fifty years the farmers in the forests have not suffered 
by drouth, as they do who cultivate the prairie region; and 
whatever advantage did exist in a new country in favor of the 
prarie, it does not exist now. In many places the timber 
is the best crop on our Indiana lands. 

This great plane of the earth's surface, not only in the 
center of the great grain-growing valley of the north temper- 
ate zone, but also in the latitude of all historic nations, 
with all its resources, remained uncultivated until the present 
century. 



lO SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 



CHAPTER II. 

MOUNDS, INDIAN AND FRENCH VILLAGES. 

The mounds found in Rush, Franklin, Vanderburgh, Knox, 
Green, Vigo and Tippecanoe, were either fortifications or 
sepulchres, nor do they reveal to us their origin or end. 
Whether built by pie-Adamites, Phoenicians, Toltecks, Astecks, 
Shoshones, Hunting Indians, or perhaps Mongolians. 

The villages of the Indians known as Piankishaivs of the 
south west, in Knox County ; the Kickapoos of Warren and 
Vermillion ; the Weatenons of Wea ; the Eelrivers of Logans- 
port and Thorntown; the Delawares, of White river, near 
Muncie; the Miamis of Wabash, Miami and Allen, and the 
Pottawattamies of the St. Joseph, were all hunters, not agricul- 
turists or herdsmen. And Indiana was more a hunting ground 
than a home — often dark and bloody in war with the Iroquois, 
the French, English and Virginians. 

Here in these forests for ages roamed the happy Indian. 
By this I mean to advance the idea that of savage life the 
huntsman is the happiest. 

The rich soil of the small prairies skirting the clear streams 
enabled the squaws and papooses to raise, by a simple primitive 
form of tillage, a supply of grain and vegetables. The adjoining 
maple grove furnished sugar; and hence along the border of 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 1 1 

the dense forests, were found the Indian fields. If this frugal 
family had a true huntsman as its head, all he had to do was 
to furnish meat and clothes for his dependent ones. 

The white-tailed deer, brown bear and black turkey, were 
so abundant that it was not difficult to find a supply ; and the 
experienced hunter gave his attention to these animals as the 
means of home stores, relieved as they were, by fish and 
aquatic fowls which were often caught by the squaws and boys. 
The beaver, otter, muskrat, and raccoon furnished peltries 
ample to purchase all the articles procured of civilized man. 

From all that now appears, or that tradition has furnished, 
Indiana never was the permanent home — only the hunting ground 
— of the North American Indian. If hunting is the happiest 
state of savage life, then it was here the Indian passed his most 
delightful days. 

Before the Indian was removed, came the French, and settled 
at St. Joseph, Bertran, Wea, Maumee, Terre Haute and Vincennes. 
But they were only traders and trappers — none of them farmers. 
These Canadian-French, instead of elevating the Indian, sunk be- 
low European civilization — nearer the habits of the savages. The 
schools of the Jesuites only trained their devotees in the forms of 
superstition. 

The isolated immigrants were many of them fugitives from 
justice in Europe and the older States of America. At the begin- 
ning of the century, very few persons had land, except the French 
and Indian donations, or soldiers' claims in Clark's grant, as the 
first land office was opened in 1804, after the treaty of 1803. 



12 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 



CHAPTER III. 

ANGLO-AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS FORTIFICATIONS 

DURING WAR. 

The settlers near the Ohio river, from Kentucky, were hunt- 
ers, Hving on congress land. 

The following, from Rev. George K. Hester's Diary, will il- 
lustrate their improvidence : 

"In 1820 I was appointed to Mt. Sterling circuit, in Crawford 
county, which was then one of the most gloomy regions in the 
State. This circuit embraced a very poor and broken part of the 
State. Many of the people were destitute of the necessaries of 
life, and, of course, I had to share with them in this matter. On 
one occasion I recollect to have visited a family, preached, and 
remanied twenty-four hours, and left, without breaking my fast. 
They had nothing, the man having gone a distance to get bread- 
stuff, and failing to return while I remained. This was a four- 
week's circuit. The number of attempts to preach must have aver- 
aged with the number of days in the year, and I must have trav- 
eled 3,000 miles, and this without any quarterage, except a few 
dollars' worth of sugar for my family. " 

The first colony in Indiana was from Western Pennsylvania 
and Northwest Virginia, who fled from the United States troops 
sent by Washington to support the collectors of revenue, and 
suppress the whisky insurrection. 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. I 3 

In 1 796 they came in boats down the Ohio and up the Wa- 
bash and settled in Knox county. 

Next came the Quakers from North Carolina, and settled 
Wayne, Washington and Orange counties, and a large immigra- 
tion of Methodists from North Carolina, in Daviss county. 

After the organization of the Territorial Government, came 
the officers, civil, judicial and military, from Virginia and Mary- 
land, bringing their slaves. About this time there were adven- 
turers of Scotch, Irish, English and Germans, from Europe. Next 
a colony of Germans from Pennsylvania settled in Harrison coun- 
ty. There was also a colony of. Swiss in Switzerland county, and 
in 18 17 a colony of Western New Yorkers, from Olean, settled in 
Dearborn. There were settlements from England in Dearborn, 
Franklin and Vanderburgh, and a settlement from South Carolina 
in Gibson county. Among all these were a few from Jersey, and 
New York and Philadelphia, with occasionally a stray Yankee. 

When the territory was attached to the state of Virginia it 
was all Knox county. Illinois was St. Clair; Michigan was Wayne. 
The seats of military and civil government were Kaskaskia, Vin- 
cennes and Detroit, retaining their French names. 

We have the geology of history in the names. Many of the 
streams are Indian, the towns French and the counties American 
— seventy of these perpetuate the names of honored American 
heroes, statesmen and scholars. It is worthy of remark that the 
French and CelticTrish settle in clans, even in a new country. 

It is owing to the immense resources and location of Indiana 
that prosperity now marks her so highly among the States of the 
great grain-growing valley. A large portion of western travel 
must pass across, situated as it is between the lakes on the north, 
and the Ohio river on the south. We may well apply the Dutch 
proverb, "God sends meat, devil sends cook," for much of the 
improvements by State and National legislation have been a 



14 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

poor hash at the expense of the treasury. IlHnois and Michigan, 
by the power of such men as Edwards, Cook, Cass and Chandler, 
received much larger appropriations for utilizing their resources 
than did Indiana. 

Much more is due to the labors of "the meek," who in- 
herit this fertile part of the earth, than the wisdom of her states- 
men in the national government. Separated from Michigan in 
1805, and Illinois in 1809, Indiana was admitted as a State 
in 1 8 16. 

At this date the Indians claimed all the land west of a line 
from Fort Recovery in Fort Recovery, in Ohio, to the falls of the 
Ohio river, and all north of a line commencing at the mouth 
of Raccoon Creek, on the Wabash, running south and east until it 
intersected the above line. Not one-third the territory, and that 
the least fertile, was owned by the State when admitted to the 
Union. 

The second decade of this century was an eventful period. 

I. Indian hostilities, led by Tecumseh and his brother 
Temsquatawa, producing battles at Tippecanoe, Vallonia, Eel river, 
Wild-Cat, Fort Wayne, Fort Harrison, and Missisinewa. 

II. Erecting and guarding fortresses, called "block houses," 
by "rangers" employed by the United States at the Wabash Rapids 
at Fort Knox, at Busroan, at Fort Harrison, at Stafford's, at Bono, 
at Vallonia, at Napolean, at Bryson's, at Garretson's and White- 
water, near Milton. These posts continued to be occupied by 
soldiers until 18 15. 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 1 5 



CHAPTER IV. 



NEW PURCHASE NEW IMMIGRANTS. 



The treaties of 1816 and 1818 ceded large quantities of 
land from the old boundary west to Illinois, and embraced what 
is now Rush, Decatur, Henry, Shelby, Hancock, Madison, Noble, 
Hendricks, Putnam, Park, Vermillion, Fountain, Montgomery, 
Warren, Tippecanoe,! Carroll, Clinton and Cass. This was 
called "the New Purchase," and brought a new class of set- 
tlers into the territory. 

Into Decatur, Shelby, Rush, Marion and Putnam, came 
the better class of Kentuckians. Many of them sold their 
slaves and turned the money into land and cattle. A few 
brought their slaves with [them and set them free. 

There was, however, a sufficient immigration from Ohio and 
Pennsylvania to build mills and lay off towns, and scramble for 
office. In the new counties the electioneering between the 
Virginians and Pennsylvanians, the Ohioans and Kentuckians 
was sharply contested and increased during the third decade, 
especially after the legislation removed from Corydon to Indian- 
apoHs. From 18 15 to 1820 the old counties increased in 
population and the value of town property. Speculation in real 
estate which had gone up to fabulous prices in the old counties, 
was checked by the reports of the rich farm lands of the New 



1 6 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

Purchase, and those who could sell their possessions in Wayne 
Franklin, Jefferson, Clark, Harrison, Lawrence and Monroe, 
moved to the western and northern level lands, settling on not 
only what was in the market, but encroaching on the reser- 
vations of the Miami and Pottawattamie Indians. The uncom- 
monly fatal sickness of 1820, though it increased the desire 
to leave the river towns of the lower Wabash, crippled the 
means of emigration, checked immigration, and lowered the 
price of land, so that for years improved farms and town lots 
could not be sold for what they had cost. These changes 
operated seriously on the improvements of all the older parts 
of Indiana. And the malarial fever in the new, as well as the 
old settlements, for ten years prevented immigration. In many 
places people only stayed because they could not sell and get 
away. 

During the third decade there were abundant crops of 
grain and fruit; but much sickness and little money. Banks 
and merchants failed, and business was dull until 1843, when 
the State Bank was organized. 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 1/ 



CHAPTER V. 

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS EDUCATION. 

The first general public improvements were the grading 
of the National road by the United States funds, and the 
opening of the Michigan road with lands donated by the In- 
dians.* These roads not only "opened a way through the forest, 
but enabled laborers to procure land. 

The moving of the Indians from the St. Joseph and 
upper Wabash, brought that part of the State into market, 
and hence another immigration. This was comparatively the 
best, coming from New England, New York, Ohio, Kentucky 
and Southern Indiana. They had what Washington said o^ 
Marietta at the beginning of that settlement, the three essential 
elements of civilization: "property, education and religion." 
In 1838 the entire country from St. Louis, in Missouri, to 
Detroit, in Michigan, was visited with malarial fever, not so fatal 
as in 1820, but equally general, and produced a panic which 
checked emigration from all the mountain regions in the older 
States. Again, as in 1820, there was in 1840, .great failures 
and derangement in currency. The accumulation of surplus by 
the increased cultivation of a large area of fertile lands, made a 
demand for channels of commerce, and produced canals in parts 

*See Chamberlands, 126. 
(2) 



1 8 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

of the State. This brought the Irish canal-diggers as useful 
laborers. The donation to the State of land, issuing scrip for 
labor, which became a land currency, did much to improve 
the marshy part of the prairie lands. We do not call them 
lozv lands, for our lakes and marshes have the highest altitude, 
and are easily drained. This has destroyed many of our original 
mill-seats, requiring the substitution of steam, and its adaptation 
to the use of machinery has brought an immigration of skilled 
mechanics into our towns and cities which have increased the pop- 
ulation of the inland towns far beyond what was contemplated 
by the founders. 

A large portion of these mechanics were from Sweeden 
and the North German provinces, and, like the Irish, brought 
only their skill as experts in labor, sending more money to 
bring relatives than they brought from the Fatherland. The 
few who brought money vested it in breweries and wholesale 
liquor manufactories for the retailing saloons, and these have 
sunk parts of our cities lower than the pot Jwiise of Scotland, 
club house of London, hotel of France, or American bar. 
In all our farming neighborhoods, free from the European 
influence, the American moral reforms of temperance, Sab- 
bath observance, schools and churches, have attained a high 
state of advancement. It is only in the attempt of these later 
immigrants from other governments and customs, that our 
cities become sinks of vice and crime. 

Congregated idleness is the hot-bed of vice, fertilized by 
intemperance, producing crime ; requiring a vigorous police to 
enforce compulsory attendance at school over all parents who 
neglect voluntary opportunities for the education of their chil- 
dren, not only in the lessons of school books but in the habits 
of thinking, labor and economy. All boys by nature are lazy, 
and this is only cured by necessity, discipline, or ambition, 
and should be applied when they are young. 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. I9 

Riding, swimming, chopping, plowing, spelling, reading, 
writing, praying, and thinking, learned young, are never for- 
gotten ; but neglected in youth, are never obtained. 

Though two distinct nations if not races of men have 
already occupied this part of the globe, neither the construc- 
tion of mounds nor traditions of Indians give us history, 
until it was settled by the Anglo-American, commencing with 
the nineteenth century. These brought with them the antag- 
onistic elements uttered by the European theorists in the fol- 
lowing quotations. In the year sixteen hundred and seventy 
the Governor of Virginia said: "I thank God there are no free 
schools nor printing presses among us. Learning has brought dis- 
obedience, and heresy, and sects, into.the world, and printing has 
divulged them." There have been, and are now, among our 
statesmen, faithful representatives of this false and fooHsh sen- 
timent. The Plymouth Colony adopted the opposite theory, 
and in sixteen hundred and forty-seven provided by law for the 
education of the people. These antagonistic theories brought 
from Europe to America, have for centuries been working out 
their own results. Unfortunately for us, Indiana has had more 
than a due proportion of the former, not only drifted from older 
settlements in other States, but stratified over much of her native 
population, now hardened into petrifactions of ignorance, super- 
stition and vice, demonstrating the converse of the noble senti- 
ment uttered by the patriot-statesman of this Union in the ar- 
ticle of compact receiving land from Virginia, pledging every 
sixteenth section for public schools, and declaring, as Congress 
did on July 13, 1787 : 

"Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to 
good governments and the happiness of mankind, schools and 
the means of education shall forever be encouraged." This 
national act asserts a great vital principle which was responded 



20 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

to by the territorial legislature of Indiana in the year 1807, by 
the act of incorporation, forming the Vincennes University, 
with the following preamble : 

"The independence, happiness and energy of every re- 
public depends upon the wisdom, virtue, talents and energy of 
its citizens and rulers, and that science, literature and the lib- 
eral arts contributed in an eminent degree to improve those 
qualities and acquirements, and that learning has ever been 
the ablest advocate of genuine liberty, the best supporter of 
national religion and the source of the only solid and imper- 
ishable glory which nations can acquire." 

The old constitution of the State, in 18 16, required the 
Legislature to provide by law for a general system of educa- 
tion, from the township school to the State University. The 
new constitution of 1852 says nothing about a university, but 
provides for a "uniform system of common schools, wherein 
tuition shall be without charge and equally open to all." 

Education has had loyal friends and devout soldiers fight- 
ing its battles here on our own soil for seventy-five years. The 
records of the courts would furnish a long list of suits growing 
out of opposition to liberal means for education, from John 
Linch's subscription to Judge Perkins' decisions. The journal 
of the Legislature would furnish volumes of school laws and 
amendments and repeals, and a report of the speeches in the 
House of Representatives, would furnish examples of elocution 
with more variety than Porter or Quackenbos ever published, as 
the following example will illustrate. Joseph A, Wright, when 
a representative from Park county, closed a speech in favor of 
"free schools" supported by the State, with the following clas- 
sic peroration : 

"I hope the day will come when every mother in Indiana, 
like the mother of Gracchi, will be able to say, 'these are my 
jewels!'" 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 21 

There was an uneducated member from Green county, who 
whispered to Tom DowHng, of Vigo, "Who does he mean, 
Tom?" who answered, "Its an old woman on Raccoon, who has 
twelve sons, all great scholars. Answer him." 

Up jumped Joe Storms, of Green, and said, "Mr. Speaker, Mr. 
Speaker ! the gentleman from Parke need not think he has all the 
educated people. We have as good scholars as old Mrs. 
Gracchie!" 

It would seem at first sight to be an easy thing for the rep- 
resentatives of a free people to frame statutes to carry out the 
design of our organic law as expressed in the constitution, but 
facts prove this to be a mistake. 

The first draft, as pr'nted in open form for the members 
of the Legislature, drawn by Col. Bryant in 1852, was the best, 
but could not pass. That which did pass has been amended and 
changed at every session for the last thirty years, until it, with 
our school fund, is the boast of Indiana. The State and denomi- 
national colleges each have their own history. So I say no 
more on education. 



22 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 



CHAPTER VI. 



RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS. 



The most inexplicable part of the history of Indiana, is 
found in the professed religious condition and character of its 
early inhabitants and the expressed infidelity of its age. I write 
as a historian, and give the facts as I know them. 

The papal priests had schools among the Indians and 
kept up the forms of the Catholic church in all French fam- 
ilies and villages. These were sincere and devout until cor- 
rupted by infidels from France and Scotland, who were edu- 
cated and polished in manners. One was the famed traveler 
and infidel writer, Voltaire. Another was a brother of Sir 
James Mcintosh, with whom I was personally acquainted. 

The priest, "John Champommere, " who built their first 

brick church in Vincennes, had been a French grenadier in 
Napoleon's army; and Henry Shaw, who organized the Pro- 
testant Episcopal church, had been a cavalier in Wellington's 
army. Both professed to have been at Waterloo. They were 
men of great energy and remarkable eloquence. 

Among the American Protestants the Southern Baptists 
were most numerous until the division on missions ; one led 
by McCoy, the Indian missionary, and the other by Daniel Par- 
ker, author of "Two Seeds," printed by Stout, in Vincennes, 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 23 

of which book George Waller, editor of a Baptist paper, said, 
"It took spellers, writers, readers, compositors and pressmen 
to make it passable nonsense." It was, however, an attempt 
of an antinomian to revise the old Manachean dogma of two 
natures, claiming the elect as God's children, and the reprobates 
as springing from the devil by natural birth. 

From 1804 to 1812 there was, through all the Southwest, 
an unusual excitement on the subject of religion, and the Bap- 
tists, Presbyterians and Methodists participated. The Presby- 
terians, as an organization, v/ere supplied with ministers and 
the best educated men in Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana. 
And yet, two things existed — disputes on doctrine among the 
preachers, and the jerks among the people.* 

The following is from the Rev. B. W. Stone, who saw it 
first among the Presbyterians, and last among the New Lights. 
(See Stone's Life, pp. 60-66) : 

' ' The Brethern, elders, and deacons came together on this 
subject; for we had agreed previously with one another to act in 
concert, and not to adventure on anything new without advice 
from one another. At this meeting we took up the matter in 
a brotherly spirit, and concluded that every brother and sister 
should act freely, and according to their conviction of right — and 
that we should cultivate the long-neglected grace of forbearance 
towards each other — they who should be immersed, should not 
despise those who were not, and vice versa. Now the question 
arose, who will baptize us ? The Baptists would not, except w^e 
united with them; and there were no elders among us, who 
had been immersed. It was finally concluded among us, that if 
we were authorized to preach, we were also authorized to baptize. 
The work then commenced, the preachers baptized one another, 

* A nervous agitation of the voluntary muscles. 



24 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

and crowds came, and were also baptized. My congregations 
very generally submitted to it, and it soon obtained generally, 
and yet the pulpit was silent on the subject. In Brother Mar- 
shall's congregation there were many who wished baptism. As 
Brother Marshall had not faith in the ordinance, I was called upon 
to administer. This displeased him and a few others. 

"The subject of Baptism now engaged the attention of the peo- 
ple very generally, and some, with myself, began to conclude 
that it was ordained for the remission of sin, and ought to be 
administered in the name of Jesus to all beheving penitents. I 
remember once about this time we had a great meeting at 
Concord. Mourners were invited every day to collect before the 
stand, in order for prayers, (this being the custom of the times.) 
The brethren were praying daily for the same people, and none 
seemed to be comforted. I was considering in my mind, what 
could be the cause. The words of Peter, at Pentecost, rolled 
through my mind : 'Repent and be baptized for the remission of 
sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.' I 
thought, were Peter here, he would thus address these mourn- 
ers. I quickly arose, and addressed them in the same language, 
and urged them to comply. Into the spirit of the doctrine I 
was never fully led, until it was revived by Brother Alexander 
Campbell, some years after. 

"The churches and preachers grew and were multiplied ; we 
began to be puffed up at our prosperity. A law of Synod, or 
Presbytery, forbade their people to associate with us in our wor- 
ship, on pain ' of censure, or exclusion from their communion. 
This influenced many of them to join us. But this pride of ours 
was soon humbled by a very extraordinary incident. Three mis- 
sionary Shakers from the East came amongst us — Bates, Mitchum 
and Young. They were eminently qualified for their mission. 
Their appearance was prepossessing — their dress was plain and 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 2$ 

neat — they were grave and unassuming at first in their manners — 
very intelligent and ready in the Scriptures, and of great boldness 
in their faith. 

"They informed us that they had heard of us in the East, and 
greatly rejoiced in the work of God amongst us — that as far as we 
had gone we were right ; but we had not gone far enough into the 
work — that they were sent by their brethren to teach the way of 
God more perfectly, by obedience to which we should be led into 
perfect holiness. They seemed to understand all the springs and 
avenues of the human heart. They delivered their testimony, and 
labored to confirm it by the Scriptures — promised the greatest 
blessings to the obedient, but certain damnation to the disobedi- 
ent. They urged the people to confess their sins to them, 
especially the sin of matrimony, and to forsake them all imme- 
diately — husbands must forsake their wives, and wives their hus- 
bands. This was the burden of their testimony. They said they 
could perform miracles, and related many as done among them, 
but we never could persuade them to try to work miracles 
among us. 

"Many such things they preached, the consequence of which 
was similar to that of Simon Magus. Many said they were the 
great power of God. Many confessed their sins to them, and 
forsook the marriage state ; among whom were three of our 
preachers, Matthew Houston, Richard M'Nemar and John Dun- 
lavy. Several more of our preachers and pupils, alarmed, fled 
from us, and joined the different sects around us. The sects 
triumphed at our distress, and watched for our fall, as Jonah 
watched the fall of Ninevah under the shadow of his gourd. But 
a worm at the root of Jonah's gourd killed it, and deprived him 
of its shade, and brought on him great distress. So the worm of 
Shakerism was busy at the root of all the sects, and brought on 
them great- distress ; for multitudes of them, both preachers and 



26 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

common people, also joined the Shakers. Our reproach was 
rolled away. 

"Never did I exert myself more than at this time, to save the 
people from this vortex of ruin. I yielded to no discourage- 
ment, but labored night and day, far and near, among the 
churches where the Shakers went. By this means their influence 
was happily checked in many places, I labored so hard and con- 
stantly that a profuse spitting of blood ensued. Our broken 
ranks were once more rallied under the standard of heaven, and 
were soon led on once more to victory. In answer to constant 
prayer, the Lord visited us and comforted us after this severe 
trial. The cause again revived, and former scenes were renewed. 

"The Shakers now became our bitter enemies, and united 
with the sects in their opposition to us. They denied the literal 
resurrection of the body from the grave ; they said the resurrec- 
tion meant the resurrection of Christ's body, meaning the church. 
They, the elders, had constant communication with angels and all 
the departed saints. They looked for no other or better heaven 
than that on earth. Their worship, if worthy of the name, con- 
sisted in voluntary dancing together. They lived together, and 
had all things common, entirely under the direction and control of 
the elders. They flourished greatly for some years, and built 
several superb villages ; but afterwards began to dwindle till they 
became nearly extinct. John Dunlavy, who had left us, and 
joined them, was a man of penetrating mind, wrote and published 
much for them, and was one of their elders in high repute by 
them. He died in Indiana, raving in desperation for his folly in 
forsaking the truth for an old woman's fables. Richard M'Nemar 
was, before his death, excluded by the Shakers from their society, 
in a miserable, penniless condition, as I was informed by good 
authority. The reason of his expulsion I never heard particularly; 
but from what was heard, it appears that he had become convinced 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 2/ 

of his error. The Shakers had a revelation given them to remove 
him from their village, and take him to Lebanon, in Ohio, and to 
set him down in the streets, and leave him there in his old age, 
without friends or money. Soon after he died. Matthew Houston 
is yet alive, and continues among them. 

"Their doctrine was, that the Christ appeared first in a male, 
and through life was preparing the way of salvation, which 
he could not accomplish till his second appearance in a woman, 
Anne Lees, who was now the Christ, and had full power to 
save. They had new revelations, superior to the Scriptures, 
which they called the old record, which were true, but super- 
seded by the new. When they preached to the world they 
used the old record, and preached a pure gospel, as a bait to 
catch the unwary ; but in the close of their discourse they 
artfully introduced their testimony. In this way they captivated 
hundreds, and ensnared them in ruin. Their coming was at a 
most inauspicious time. Some of us were verging on fanaticism ; 
some were so disgusted at the spirit of opposition against us, and 
the evil of division, that they were almost led to doubt the truth 
of religion in toto; and some were earnestly breating after perfection 
in holiness, of which attainment they were almost despairing, 
by reason of remaining depravity. The Shakers well knew how 
to accommodate each of these classes, and decoy them into the 
trap set for them. They misrepresented our views, and the truth ; 
and they had not the sacred regard to truth telling which becomes 
honest Christians. I ' speak advisedly. 

•'Soon after this shock had passed off, and the churches 
were in a prosperous, growing condition (for many excrescences 
had been looped off from our body) another dark cloud was 
gathering, and threatened our entire overthrow. But three of 
the elders now remained of those that left the Presbyterians, 
and who had banded together to support the truth. Robert 



28 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

Marshall, John Thompson and myself. I plainly saw that the 
two former, Marshall and Thompson were about to forsake 
us, and return to the house from whence they had come, and 
to draw as many after them as they could. They began to 
speak privately that the Bible was too latitudinarian for a creed; 
that there was a necessity at this time, to embody a few fun- 
damental truths, and to make a permanent and final stand upon 
them. One of those brethren had written considerably - on the 
points or doctrines to be received, and on those to be rejected 
by us. He brought the written piece with him to a conference 
previously appointed, in order to read it to them. It was thought 
better not to read it at that time, as too premature, but to 
postpone it to another appointment, which was made at Mount 
Tabor, near Lexington, at which a general attendance was 
required. 

"I made but little opposition then, but requested him to 
loan me the written piece till our general meeting at Mount 
Tabor, that I might in the iterim study his doctrines accurately. 
To this he willingly consented, and I availed myself of the 
permission, and wrote a particular reply to his arguments, which 
was the foundation of my 'Address,' afterwards published. 

" The general meeting at Mount Tabor came on, numerously 
attended. The piece written by Brother Thompson was read pub- 
licly, and Brother Hugh Andrews read also a piece of his own 
composition on the sarne side of the question. I read mine also, 
and Brother David Purviance, in the same faith, spoke forcibly. 
Marshall Thompson and Andrews labored hard to bring us back 
to the ground from which we had departed, and to form a system 
of doctrines from which we should not recede. This scheme was 
almost universally opposed by a large conference of preachers and 
people. Those brethren, seeing they could effect nothing, bade 
us farewell, and withdrew from us. Soon afterwards, Marshall 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 29 

and Thompson joined the Presbyterians, receiving their con- 
fession again professedly ex aninio ; and charity hopes they did as 
they professed. They became our most zealous opposers ; Mar- 
shall was required by the Presbytery to visit all our churches, 
where he had formerly preached his errors, and renounce them 
publicly, and preach to them the pure doctrine. 

These two brothers were great and good men. Their memory 
is dear to me, and their fellowship I hope to enjoy in a better 
world. Marshall has been dead for some years. He never could 
I'egain his former standing, nor the confidence of the people, after 
he left us. Thompson yet lives (1843) respected, and a zealous 
preacher of the New School Presbyterians, in Crawfordsville, In- 
diana. Not long since I had several very friendly interviews with 
him. Old things appeared to be forgotten by us both, and cast 
off by brotherly, kind affection. Hugh Andrews joined the Meth- 
odists, and long since sleeps in death. Of all the five of us 
that left the Presbyterians, I only was left, and they sought my 
life." 

During this time there was an attempt to correct error 
in doctrine, which had infested all three of these churches — that 
of Arius among the Presbyterians ; Socinius among the Bap- 
tists, and Pelagius among the Methodists. 

This produced a new organization, who assumed the name 
Christian, but were called "New Lights," led off by such scholars 
as Stone, Monfort, Thompson, Marshall, Dunlavy, McNemar, 
Houston, Ireland, and Pervaines. It made a great breach in 
the Presbyterian church. For a time these prospered, and en- 
croached on the Baptists, as they adopted baptism by immer- 
sion ; and as educators, did a good work in a new country, as 
polemics in doctrine,' with all their errors. 

Had these first seceders of the Springfield Presbytery in 
1804, continued united, it would have made a strong Congre- 



30 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

gational church. But strange to tell, the best scholars went 
to the 'Shakers.' Marshall, Thompson and Monfort returned, 
leaving Stone and Pervaines. For a time, gifted young men 
joined them, and held camp-meetings, and made faithful visits 
among the frontier, especially in those parts of the settle- 
ments where the people supported the preacher only by their 
hospitalities. Entertaining strangers, and especially "a preach- 
er," was common in all new settlements. "The preaching 
place" was known to a stranger by seeing benches in the 
door-yard of a cabin by the wayside. I knew one old man 
who was a New Light. He boasted that he paid no bill for 
lodging on an entire journey to Kentucky, "by stopping over 
night where he saw benches." 

As the Baptists of that day were extreme Antinomians, 
and the Presbyterians were Hopkinsians, the more liberal teach- 
ing of the New Lights, even extreme Pelagianism, led the 
people to reading and thinking on the great question of Divine 
Sovereignty, and human responsibility. 

On these doctrines there was not only difference of opinion, 
but sharp debate and denominational divisions, suspension of 
ministers, and expulsions for heresy. I knew one case where 
the final vote, sustaining the charge, was after the man was 
dead. These controversies resulted in the organizing of Hop- 
kinsians, Presbyterians, Antinomian Baptists, Missionary Bap- 
tists, New Light Baptists and Cumberland Presbyterians, leaving a 
small part of the people for Methodists and Quakers. And 
these were immigrants from the older States. The Friends 
(Quakers) were not aggressive ; scarcely held their own members of 
birthright, as those who married out of the society were dis- 
owned ; and the Methodists were despised by all the others. 

In those days, previous to the war, the Methodist preach- 
ers who had families had to support them on their own means, 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 3 1 

(as you see from Hester,) or by the liberality of friends. 
Hence, most of the preachers were single men, who left for 
other parts at the end of the year. If they married in the 
territory, they located and engaged in some secular business — 
some in office, some in medicine, some in merchandise, but 
most, and best, in farming. These last were useful in the vicin- 
ity in which they lived, and in many parts of Indiana the 
Methodists owe much to the located preachers who formed 
the first societies. I could give the names of many who lived 
long, worked hard, supporting their families, preaching without 
pay, who have gone to rest, and their works do follow 
them. 

But to be true to history, I must say that during the 
war of 1812 some fell away, and at the close of the second 
decade of this nineteenth century, the Methodist societies were 
a feeble folk in Indiana. In 1815 there were but five preach- 
ers, five circuits and sixteen hundred members. 

The church was greatly embarrassed with the backslidings 
of preachers — Jonathan Kidwell, William Hunt, John Baldwin, 
Thomas King, Henry Merrick and William Merrick. The last 
three were all in jail at one time, in Vincennes, not for right- 
eousness sake. 

The most talented who remained in the State, were. Sparks, 
of Dearborn, and Judge Floyd, of Harrison. The latter was 
damaged in his influence by his connection with the traitor 
Burr, and confessed he was backslidden. When a dying sol- 
dier asked him to pray for him, at the battle of Tippecanoe, 
he called on Elijah Hurst, the class-leader, to pray, for "he 
was backslidden." (This I learned from Hurst himself, in 
1829.) 

An impression has- gone out, and has been oft reported 
(since Joseph Wright was elected governor), that the Method- 



32 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

ists had the start in Indiana. This is a mistake, at all time 
previous to 1832, when the entire State was organized into 
one conference, since which, by immigration and conversion, 
they have increased. Nor were the Presbyterians of the Gen- 
eral Assembly numerous or strong previous to 1823, when 
Illinois and Indiana formed the first Presbytery. 

At all times previous to 1825, the Baptists, New Lights 
and Cumberland Presbyterians outnumbered Presbyterians, 
Methodists and Quakers. 

In Gibson county there was a church of Covenanters who 
moved with Parson Kell from South Carolina; and in Harrison 
county a society of United Brethren, with Dr. Pfremmer. 
The Protestant Episcopal church members employed H. Shaw, 
of Vincennes, and he claimed to have organized the first 
parish of that denomination; yet Bishop Kumper, who was 
Missionary Bishop, told me that "the Diocese never recog- 
nized Shaw's organization." He quit preaching, and was elect- 
ed to the Legislature from Knox county. 

In many of those old towns there were influential men 
who were outspoken infidels. Kidwell, an apostate Methodist 
preacher, published an infidel paper in Philometh, in Wayne 
county. Abel Sargeant. an apostate Baptist preacher, published 
an infidel pamphlet in Madison. The editors of county papers 
permitted articles of ridicule on the forms of worship. 

Sometimes there were rude disturbances at religious meet- 
ings. There was also an infatuation for organizing communi- 
ties. The Shakers from Kentucky established a community in 
Knox county, and proselyted from the Methodists and Bap- 
tists, until suspected of treason, having been intimate with 
Elkswatawa, the Shawnee prophet, and their first village was 
destroyed by Gen. Hopkins in 1812. They rebuilt on the prai- 
rie, which bears the name of Shaker Prairie, where they were 



PEOPLES 1 INDIANA. 33, 

distinguished as agriculturists. Here I saw a large field of 
rye all reaped and shocked in May, 1826. 

Frederick Rapp brought a number of German mechanics 
and built New Harmony, forming a manufacturing community; 
but being discouraged by the sickness of 1820, so fatal in all 
the river towns, he sold to Owen and McClure and moved to 
Economy, in Pennsylvania. Owen's views pleased the skeptics,, 
and many moved to Harmony, hoping to practice Atheism. 

I have read R. D. Owen ; heard J. Jennings and Fanny- 
Wright lecture ; have talked with Jeff Evans, Martin Wines 
and Dr. Patten, who made the experiment as above charged, to 
their sorrow. But this did not stop the infatuation. Some 
wealthy farmers in Posey county united their several farms and 
moved to a village called "Goshen," to improve on Owenism 
by a "Methodist community" of farmers. 

The New Lights established a village of mechanics in Mon- 
roe county, called the Blue Spring community. A colony fromi 
Chillicothe, Ohio, bought a large body of land on the Wabash 
and obtained from the Territorial Legislature of Illinois, a char- 
ter for an incorporated city called "Mount Carmel," as an edu- 
cational community ; there were choice lots of land purchased 
by European capitalists — by Baubean, Mcintosh, Currie, Flow- 
ers and Burbeck (the two latter from Yorkshire, England) — -• 
who brought their tenants and servants and established a commu_- 
nity near New Harmony, called "Oneborough," in Illinois,. 

All these experiments, under different ethics and aims, failed; 
and an uneducated generation grew up in the segregated fami- 
lies not connected with the communities or religious denomina- 
tions. The highest aims of the young men were to go on a flat- 
boat to New Orleans ; to push a keelboat ; and tolearnto be a 
pilot on a steamboat ; to read the advertures of Murrell, the le- 



34 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

gends of the Rock and Cave, and that Jackson fought the 
British at New Orleans. During the war the presence of idle 
soldiers, garrisoned near the settlers, many families were dis- 
graced by the seducing influences of impure men. A circum- 
stance of this character was the cause why Zachary Taylor was 
in command at the seige of Fort Harrison. Captain Shultz was 
in command of the garrison. Having seduced the wife of Wil- 
liam Medford, he left the place through fear lest Medford would 
* 'shoot him," as he threatened. Hence Lieutenant Taylor was 
an command. 

The delinquency of the civil magistrate, and feebleness of 
the churches were not sufficient to restrain the currents of evil 
which arose from war, boating, drinking. Sabbath- desecration 
and sexual bundling of the uneducated youth of that dark 
•day. 

It is well known that the infidel, W. Mcintosh, of the 
Grand Rapids of the Wabash, was the father of illegitimate 
mulatto children by old Lydia, his black housekeeper. I saw 
liim carried to his grave, and Lydia, her two daughters and 
one son, were left poor, and others got his land. His son 
became a distinguished preacher in the "African Methodist Epis- 
copal church;" for it is due to Col. Mcintosh to say that he 
gave him a good education in the English and Latin languages 
and mathematics, so that he was, in his time, among the few 
educated men of his church. This is an organization which 
commenced in Philadelphia in the year 1814, but did not reach 
Indiana until 1834, when the colored people joined them; es- 
pecially the colored preachers of the Methodist Episcopal 
church, of whom were: Daniel Brown, Jonathan Broady, Ben 
Cole, Wesley Bass, George Bushnell and ''Misraim Ham,'' the 
campmeeting hero described in Hall's "New Purchase, " a book 
■written by Professor Hall, once of Bloomington. Though a 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 35 

caricature, yet there is much truth in his pen-portraiture of law- 
yers and preachers, teachers and legislators. And here I may 
suggest to the students of Indiana history and biography, the 
sources of information beginning with Jefferson's Notes, Burnett's 
Notes, Butler's History of Kentucky, Dawson's Life of Harri- 
son, Hall's (of Cincinnati) Sketches, Hall's (of Bloomington) 
New Purchase, Stewart's Highways and Hedges, Dillon's His- 
tory, Chamberlain's Gazetteer, O. H. Smith's and other Smith's 
"Recollections," Holliday's History of Methodism, Tuttle's In- 
diana, and Packard's "Laporte County." 

It will be difficult for any person to form a correct opin- 
ion of the men who were the efficient leaders in Church or 
State by reading the partial biographies published ; especially such 
as portray character from hear-say. As none of them had a 
Boswell, succeeding generations must scan their original poems 
and essays. 

As before stated, the settlers in the "New Purchase," in the 
central part of the State, were more enterprising, so also were 
they more homogeneous; and yet the religious denominations 
zealously organized societies, and established worship in private 
houses, school houses, and in court houses, in advance of church 
buildings. The lines of division were well defined, yet the per- 
sonal intercourse of neighbors improved the charity between de- 
nominations. This so improved the moral sense of the entire 
population that for many years all united in questions of moral 
reform. It also influenced the location of the denominational 
colleges in the rich counties of Jefferson, Montgomery, Putnam, 
Marion and Johnson, which has built up a prosperous rivalry in 
higher education ; outstripping the State institutions of Vincennes 
and Bloomington. 

The upper Wabash and St. Joseph and Kankakee were the 
last to settle. These brought with them ample means for con- 



36 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

tinuing the social, devotional and educational conveniences with 
which they were familiar in the older States from whence they 
came. Comparatively much more wealth came with this last im- 
migration than was brought with the former. And, as it occurred 
at a time of financial prosperity in the commiCrcial world, and the 
immigrants were an educated people, society was sifted, and the 
flower of the States came here. The author has had some knowl- 
edge of the character of immigrants to Kentucky, Tennessee, 
Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Southern Indiana, and does not hesi- 
tate to say, none of them were equal to those who came to North- 
ern Indiana during the years between 1835 and 1855. 

And now, having in these sketches passed over the entire 
State, and written of good men and bad men, I will write of 
families, for in all these settlements there were pure and pious 
families who were the light of the neighborhood and seed of the 
church ; and each denomination prospered, as it had an influential 
layman and a pious woman as a home for the preacher, and an 
example of consistent piety ; for in all the well regulated families, 
much is due to the discretion of the wife and mother, and of 
these there were many who not only restrained their sons, but in- 
fluenced their husbands, composing a large majority of church 
members. The author may claim to know this, having slept in 
more than eight hundred different houses in Indiana, and shared 
the hospitality of those Christian women — welcome to the cabin 
and the stately mansion — and he knows full well how this cheerful 
hospitality has advanced the Christian civilization of the present 
population. Providence has especially blessed those families of 
all religious denominations which have supported their large con- 
vocations, and has withheld success from those stingy, selfish 
souls who neglect to entertain the prophet and the stranger. On 
this subject the author has made extensive observation, and it is a 
great truth, worthy of all confidence, that all who work for God, 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 37 

in things temporal, will be paid by Him in kind. "The earth is 
His and the fullness thereof." He pays all who work to advance 
His cause. 

"Known unto God are all His works." And the family is the 
first organization of known society ; social but not gregarious ; 
under special covenant from the Creator; and renewed by promise 
of blessings from the Redeemer. 

The frontier isolated families were Scotch, Welsh or Germans, 
the French and Irish settling in clans. Even in a free state, the 
African is a voluntary slave or village drudge. 

Hence, the rural districts were first occupied, by the peculiar 
independent tendencies of the descendants of the highest type of 
European Christian civilization. However far from the village or 
the church, these families had the Christian Scriptures, and respect- 
ed the sanctity of the Sabbath as holy time, as well in the family 
as in the sanctuary. Whatever of vice was in the fort, the boat or 
the village, there was a nursery of morals in those families, prepar- 
ing for the future prosperity of this garden of the church of Jesus 
Christ. 

It is not for the historian to decide what constitutes "the true 
church," but to give facts, 

McNally's Atlas of the World gives the following relative dia- 
gram of numbers in Indiana : I. The Papists. II. The Bap- 
tist. III. The Methodist, IV, Presbyterian, Each has an 
influence, as the families demonstrate the ethics of morality. 
And, notwithstanding the varied views of their teaching on 
eschatology, all train society to the same civilization ; and all 
acknowledge the supernatural agency in forming a true religious 
character ; and all venerate instituted ordiances as the means 
of Divine favor. So that conventional devotion is reverently 
observed and universally respected. 



38 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

The incidents of apostacy, of immorality, infidelity, ignorance 
and border ruffian life, as mentioned in the above pages, as well as 
in "Cartwright's Life," and Eggleston's" School Master, and Circuit 
Preacher," all fail to give an idea of the under cunrnt that flowed 
out from the pure families and religious societies first settled in 
this part — the inheritance of "the meek." Those were but the 
surface ripples and eddies of individual eccentricity, or abnormal 
experiments of pessimists in social theology. And there was in 
the rebound from the failures of all those experiments a lesson to 
the families and the churches, resulting in an increased regard for 
law, order, and religious devotion, which attained a normal vigor 
at the beginning of the third decade of the present century. 

Previous to 1830, society was not homogeneous, but in scraps, 
made so by the electric affinity of race, tastes, sects, and interest. 
There was a wide difference in the domestic habits of families 
peculiar to the provincial gossip, dialect and tastes of the older 
States from which they had emigrated. 

The Virginians and Marylanders were polished, hospitable, 
skillful in preparing a dinner and entertaining guests. So were 
the South Carolinians. The North Carolinians, Tennesseeans and 
mountain Kentuckians were poor cooks. But the New Jersyans 
could make the best appearance on small means, and the Yankee 
the most fuss. At first he was critical to have everything ''just 
so," but so plyable that he soon yielded to the self-indulgence of 
surroundings, seeking "the main chance" and adopting the very 
things of which he had first complained. 

Illustration : When Dr. Larabee came to Greencastle he found 
fault with those who " did not build farm houses near the high- 
ways, and those who in town, building in the center of the lot away 
from the street." But he afterwards petitioned the town trustees 
to vacate the street and two alleys to get his cottage in the center 
of his lot away from the street. 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 39s 

When a preacher or introduced stranger was received by an old 
Virginia householder, the host gave his time to his guest. No mat- 
ter what his domestic demands, he made the visitor feel he was 
present at the proper time when the host had leisure to entertain 
him. Not so with the Yankee. If he had been idle all day he 
would soon begin to talk of his work and go at his "chores," and 
if you did not know this was to show you his smartness, the- 
uninitiated would feel he had come at the wrong time. 

From 1832 to 1852 the fountains of Indiana civilization were 
in the families and churches — introducing not only a large increase 
of ministerial and financial resources, but also an influence over the 
legislation whereby there has grown up liberal charters, and 
grants for educational and eleemosynary institutions, since which, 
under the new Constitution, our School System has grown to its 
present magnificence ; and railroads, telegraphs and telephones, 
annihilating time and space, are making of Indianians ^;^^ people 
The former cant names, originating in local habits, or personal inci- 
dents, must soon pass away, by the force of a national policy^ 
and cosmos education. The word "Hoosier," with its origin and', 
meaning, will be clustered in history with Robin Hood's Barn,. 
Jack Kades' Palfry, and Guy Faulk's Powder Plot. 

But a truce to prediction, where I should narrate. And, groop- 
ing the results of family, church, school and railroad, as living 
forces, available, I would say to the coming men, women, fam- 
ilies and churches, "Despise not the day of small things." In, 
this fast age, some good old ways are forsaken. The vesper, Ave 
Maria, of the young Papist is not now observed as I have seen the. 
Indian and French family observe it, sixty years ago; the long chap- 
ter in Romans, and the Psalms of Rouse and Watts, and the old Scotch) 
prayer, are not in the Presbyterian family as of old, nor are the 
hymns of Wesley and prayer at meals three times a day, as once were 
with the Methodists; the third chapter of Matthew, and Gano's hymns 



40 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

and vocal prayer of the good old Baptist has no place now, I 
fear, in this fast age, the family has ran away from prayer. I 
repeat, "The family is the true nursery of morals." Everybody 
should belong to a family, and in each there should be prayer. 

I maintain that it was in those Bible-reading, psalm-singing. 
Sabbath-keeping, praying families that settled in this wilderness, 
where were sprouted the morals of our civilization. 

And it was the conversion of pious young men of such famiHes 
that furnished the churches with successful evangelists — Hargrave, 
Debruler, David McDonald and Eiljah Goodwin among the 
New Lights ; McCoy, Daviss, Crabb and French among the Bap- 
tists ; Carnehan, Hunter, Hays, the Aliens, Thompsons and others 
among the two branches of Presbyterians; Beggs, Fisher, Miller, 
Xerns, Daily, Wiley and the Smiths and Hesters of the Methodists. 
The self-sacrifice apparent to a young man of gifts in that day, 
required a consecration intensifying his moral power. There was 
during the years from '33 to '43 an unusual number who entered the 
ministery. 

From 1833 to 1843 there were received and appointed to cir- 
cuits 250 young men. And I suppose the other churches increased 
in about the same proportion. I place this in the chapter on 
families. For our successful evangelists came from the pious 
family. 

As before stated, the north part oflndianawas largely occupied by 
the descendants of those old English colonies first planted by Cecil 
and Penn, in which the Cavalier, the Puritan, the Huguenot, the 
Baptist, Quaker and Papist were all tolerated and protected. Their 
descendants, of the third generation, settling in Indiana, not only 
gives us the best families, but also the best church laymen — im- 
proved by the energy of the "York State" descendant of the 
Yankee. 

In conclusion I may give my opinion of the changes wrought on 
the smaller class of emigrants. 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 4I 

The German Jews remain exclusive, retaining their pecuHar 
distinct individuahty. The north Germans will be American and 
English as are now the Palatinates and Hessians. The Menenites 
and Dunkers will not hold their children to their distinction. The 
Indian has gone to stay ; the French and Swiss are lost by inter- 
marriage ; the African cannot bleach, nor make a history with 
us, while he has his tastes and we have our prejudices. And yet, 
those who were first brought and emancipated and left free, in the 
old countries, with all the opportunities of a new country, have 
not become farmers nor herdsmen ; nor do they avail themselves 
of the opportunity to be free and independent, choosing, rather, to 
be hostlers, barbers and waiters than tillers of the soil, spending 
their wages in toys and amusements instead of homes and lands, 
flocks and herds— inventing nothing for the elevation of his family 
or his race. 

It is doubtful whether the island Mongolian can have health in 
our climate, nor need the Jap or Chinese remain longer than to 
learn our civilization as he may adapt it to his own country and 
return. 



24 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 



CHAPTER VII. 

WILD ANIMALS MINISTER MARKSMANSHIP. 

I close by a chapter on wild animals. From the Ohio river on 
the East to the Mississippi on the West, there was great uni- 
formity in the fauna found wild in this wilderness. The buffalo 
had but gone, so that I did not see them ; yet there were old men 
who told me they had witnessed hundreds of them drinking water 
in the Ohio river near where Louisville now stands, as it was then 
a village on the banks of Beargrass Creek. 

The elk had not all gone, for I ate of the beef of a wild elk shot 
by John Mysinhamer as late as 1827. 

The bear did not winter in this country, but only traveled 
through it during the season of ripe nuts. 

It was the home of the beaver, leaving his work across the Swale 
as the bridge utilized by the early settlers for roads. The otter, 
mink and muskrat were abundant, burrowing and building in the 
grassy marshes. The panther and varieties of "wild cat," were 
so numerous that I knew one man who killed sixty in one winter. 
I shot one myself 

The large grey wolf and small prairie wolf were so numerous 
that the first settlers could not save any sheep ; and pigs, calves 
and colts were devoured by them. 

The raccoon, fox and grey squirrel were very abundant. The 
porcupine, opossum, skunk and weasel were annoying, especially 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 43 

destroying poultry. The most valuable was the white tailed deer, 
furnishing venison, and skins for leather. 

Rabbits were scarce previous to white settlement. So also were 
quails and turtle doves. These have increased by human protec- 
tion against wolves and hawks. 

The supply of meat in the flesh of the ruminantia and rodentia 
of these native quadrupeds, to which could be added the meat of 
many birds, from the snipe to the black turkey, not only sup- 
ported the Indian, but provided for the white settlers provision for 
their families, and the demand for fur-bearing pelts enabled them 
to purchase the necessary stores, and the dressed skins, suitable 
leather for garments ; substituted for woollen goods. 

But it required some knowledge of the habits and haunts of the 
animals to be able to find them. But this was learned from the 
trapping experience of the Indian and by the observation of the 
hunter himself. Instead of gambling on the price of grain, we 
took stock in a "deer lick," or "premium on scalps," or "choice 
cuts at a shooting match. " 

The practice of shooting a rifle bullet so as only to hit a squir- 
rel's head was the test of a good marksman, and to know what part 
of the buck or bear would be a deadly hit was essential knowledge 
for the hunter. Nor did this skill damage the reputation of a 
preacher with the back-woods congregations. I knew a circuit 
preacher, Presiding Elder and a Bishop who went into a sugar 
orchard to shoot squirrels, with a small bore rifle, who brought to 
the cook eight squirrels with nine shots — all shot in the head. It 
was better to miss than to hit the body or legs. As above stated 
it was not disparaging to a preacher with the settlers of the wilder- 
ness to be a good shot at wild game, but I witnessed how it 
shocked the conscience of a Scotchman, just arrived from England, 
when, at the house of his nephew, I described the catching of a 
wild-cat with the dogs of my host, where I stopped that morning. 



44 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

He was a devout Baptist, despising the "sporting clergy" of the 
EstabHshed Church of England, and when I was absent he inquired 
of his nephew, who was a Methodist: "Are yer ministers fox 
hunters in this country?" 

It is to be regretted that we have failed to domesticate not only 
the profitable animals but also the native birds found here. The 
white swan is seldom seen ; the wild goose does not remain in our 
lakes and rivers ; the sand hill crane is leaving our swamps ; the 
prairie grouse are few and wild ; nor do we hear the thundering 
pheasant or chattering paroquet. The lamb-stealing eagle and egg- 
sucking raven have left our heards to the vulture, hawk and crow. 
The swarms of pigeons, eating beach nuts, and swarms of black-birds 
we no longer see in clouds as once we did. The "pigeon roost" is 
a relic of the past. Legislation attempts to remedy a wanton de- 
struction, but it is too late. Many of the associates oi my rides 
through grove and prairie are gone, leaving only the boulder of 
the glacier on which they prowled or pearched. But these do not 
speak of death or emigration. The native sylva, too, has changed 
its trees, grasses, plants and shrubs, as well as the fauna. The 
majestic tulip, iron oak and elastic ash have fallen by the wood- 
man's ax. Where now can we see the fields of cane that covered 
the lowlands of the Wabash and Ohio rivers? Who digs the Jin- 
sang, Columbo and Wahoo roots for Chinese trade? Our cooks 
now know nothing about spicewood, sassafras and syckamore for 
tea; nettles for greens and elderberries for pies. But of this I may 
not complain. All these changes are for the bettering of the con- 
dition of those who come after us. 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 45 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MISCELLANEOUS REMINISCENCES. 



The name "Hoosier" originated as follows: When the young 
men of the Indiana side of the Ohio river went to Louisville, the 
Kentucky men boasted over them, calling them "New Purchase 
Greenies," claiming to be a superior race, composed of "half horse, 
half alligator, and tipped off with snapping-turtle." These taunts 
produced fights in the market-house and streets of Louisville. 

On one occasion a stout bully from Indiana was victor in a fist 
fight, and having heard Col. Leminousky lecture on the "Wars 
of Europe," who always gave martial prowess to the German Hus- 
sars in a fight with the Russian Cossacks, pronouncing Hussars 
"Hoosiers," the Indianian, when the Kentuckian cried 'enough,' 
jumped up and said, "I amx a Hoosier." And hence the Indi- 
anaians were called by that name. This was its true origin. I 
was in the State when it occurred. 

In domestic life, comedy and tragedy occurred. 

On one occasion, in Knox county, a Frenchman who had mar- 
ried a woman from Kentucky, being in altercation with her, and 
having but a limited knowledge of English, he said, "You be one 
dog's wife." 

"Yes," she replied, "I know that to my sorrow." 



46 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND 

He had not the word "bitch." 

In the same county, during the raising of the first meeting house 
attempted by the Methodists in the territory, two men had a 
bloody fight, because the wife of one was seduced to leave her first 
husband and marry the other. 

The house was never finished — not even covered — and the walls 
remained a monument of folly. There was a divorce by the Leg- 
islature, and F. married B.'s wife and B. married another woman. 
Vincennes and Corydon, while they were seats of legislative assem- 
blies, during the winter, were places of dissipation. Drunkeness 
and gambling were practiced by men in office. I dare not men- 
tion the names of reputed natural sons of men in office. 

In 1829, a thief stole a Methodist preacher's horse, and was 
pursued across Indiana and Kentucky into Tennessee, where he 
was captured, and brought back to Indiana. He was tied to a 
tree by the "Regulators" and, after receiving a number of lashes, 
was sent out of the State. 

This summary punishment of thieves often prevailed, and was 
more of a terror to evil-doers than the slow prosecution by officers 
of the law. 

The disturbance of religious assemblies was prevented through 
fear of the muscular power of some of the preachers, so that the 
facts as they occurred with Finley, Raper, Cartiwright, Havens 
and Farmer fully justify Eggleston's "Circuit Preacher." There 
was no need of fiction. If Eggleston had written the veritable bi- 
ography of his own relatives — the Craigs, Egglestons and Terrells — 
it would have facts stranger than fiction. His "School Master" 
had but few examples, and is not a pen-portraiture oi general educa- 
tion. It may have had an example at "Craig's Bar," near the 
bend of the Ohio ; but that was a dark place in literature. 

It is to be regretted that from some cause the best men and 
wisest statesmen of both national parties have not been chosen to 



PEOPLES IN INDIANA. 47 

important positions, either by the people or the legislature. 
There was truth in what old Henry Hurst said, when he quoted i 
I Corinthians, 27, as proof of Indiana's "imitation of providence," 
as to him a new discovery when he heard an old anti-nomian 
preach on the weakness of man and thes oveteignty of Providence : 
"I knew Indiana had taken her weak men to govern her, but did 
not know it was the order of the Divine government until I heard 
that sermon." Hurst and the preacher, were both in the Leg- 
islature at the time. 

The men who practiced law in the courts in those counties had 
some strange ways. One of them pointed out to me the grounds 
under an elm where they ran foot races by moonlight. At the 
first session of the Putnam County court, Farington, Dewey and 
Judah slept on a bed made on the floor of the clerk's house. 
Judah and Dewey had blankets — overcoats — but Farington had a 
swallow-tail dress coat of broadcloth, which he pulled off and laid 
at the head of his bed. In the night Farington became alarmed, 
supposing a snake was in the bed. Old Mack, the clerk, came to 
the rescue with his candle, when they discovered Dewey's dog on 
Farington's coat, having switched his tail in Farington's face. 
This Judah told me himself. 

I could give the names of successful and unsuccessful teachers, 
preachers, doctors, lawyers, judges, governors and senators who 
have had their ingress andegress on the stage of office since first I 
voted for Isaac Blackford for governor, which was my first vote 
and on the temperance question. But we were beat by J. B. Ray, 
who was liberal with whisky drank with tin cups. Blackford was 
too temperate or too stingy to treat. 

And now a word as to temperance, or the drinking of those 
days. There was, in 1824. a volunteer society, pledged not 
to furnish whisky' at raisings and log rollings. This was the 
first organized temperance society in the State. In 1828 other 



L'.??^y "^CONCRESS 




48 SKETCHES OF THINGS AND PEOI Q «Y'il'''"''''''''''''W''W/i//i//////// 

'^^'* 751 830 4 1 

parts of the State organized county societies. In 1829 there was 

a united effort at IndianapoHs, which has, in some form, been 
kept up ever since. 

And now, having witnessed its good results for 60 years — 
and having attained the age of 80 years without using any in- 
toxicants — I say to young and old men, keep sober. 



Errata. — The name "Colters" appears in the Preface of this book. It shouhl be "Colten." Al»r> 
on page 16 read "business was dull until 18:j4," instead of "l»i4:i." 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 751 830 4 



